A calendar the whole clinic trusts
Appointments & Scheduling keeps track of who is coming, when, and to see which doctor. It replaces the shared paper diary that only one person can hold at a time.
What it does
- Books, reschedules and cancels appointments in a shared calendar.
- Finds any visit in seconds — search the appointment list by the patient's name, email, or the visit's reference number.
- Offers the chosen doctor's real open time slots for the day, with times already taken clearly crossed out so no one double-books.
- Lets the front desk register a brand-new patient right inside the booking form, without leaving the page.
- Books a visit as an online appointment, where the patient attends through their secure portal and is emailed the link the moment the booking is made (see below).
- Allows a visit to be booked as "to be scheduled" when the exact time isn't settled yet, to be pinned down later on confirmation.
- Records the status of each visit — booked, arrived, seen, completed.
- Offers the patient's next appointment as part of completing this one, so "come back in two weeks" is booked while they are still at the desk (see below).
- Captures the patient's chief complaints and vitals at intake, and lets staff tag the visit with one or more complaint categories — picked from suggestions or typed in fresh, which quietly builds the clinic's own list over time.
- Gives each visit its own reference number when the consultation starts, so the prescription, lab orders, imaging and charges for that encounter all stay tied together. The reference badge at the top of each of those pages links back to the appointment for anyone who may view appointments.
- Lets a doctor order laboratory tests and imaging straight from the booking form, so the request is raised with the appointment rather than chased afterwards (each needs its module switched on). Ordered tests and studies are billed to the visit the moment they are ordered — nobody has to key them onto the bill by hand later.
- Lets staff pick Charges right on the booking form — the same checklist the appointment page uses — so the bill starts the moment the visit is booked, not after (see below).
- Keeps a checklist of what the patient actually availed on the visit — services, packages, products and one-off items — with a comment against each, and bills straight from it (see below).
- Captures a full Annual Physical Exam (APE) on a visit when needed, and prints it as a ready-to-hand 2-page report (see below).
- Keeps supporting documents with the visit — receipts, lab results, referrals — and lets staff optionally tag each upload to the matching Annual Physical Exam laboratory panel (CBC, urinalysis, chest X-ray, …) so it files itself against the right result. A document can be up to 100 MB and uploads in the background with a progress bar, so a large scanned file does not tie up the rest of the visit.
- Emails the patient automatically whenever the appointment's status changes — confirmed, completed, or cancelled — always carrying their secure portal link (see the Online Appointment Requests guide).
- Puts the confirmed visit straight onto the patient's own calendar, so their phone reminds them before it starts (see below).
- Reminds every patient with an email address 24 hours before their visit, with the appointment attached so it can go on their calendar (see below).
- Connects to online requests so bookings made by patients flow straight in.
- Places the patient conversation in the appointment summary, with the booking
note kept in the Notes section below. Staff can read and answer the same conversation from the patient profile — for clinics that have switched patient messaging on (Settings → Patient Messaging; off by default).
- Opens with Actions alone before the visit starts, and puts every other
section a click away once it does (see below).
What the patient availed
The same checklist is available at two points: on the Book Appointment form itself, under a Charges card, for staff who may bill (appointments.edit); and on the appointment page for the rest of the visit. Adding a service and a package while booking puts both rows straight on the bill — there is nothing further to do on the appointment page afterwards, though it can still be adjusted there like any other visit.
Every visit carries a checklist of what the patient actually received. Add to it as the visit goes:
- A service from the clinic's catalogue.
- A package, which opens up into its component items so each one can be ticked off and commented on individually — while still being charged as the single package price, with the difference shown as its discount.
- A product from pharmacy or supplies.
- A one-off line for anything that isn't in a catalogue.
Each line has a tick for availed, an editable quantity and price, and a comment — so "second dose given", "patient declined", or "supplied by the employer" sits on the record next to the item itself. Services already covered by a package you've added are kept out of the standalone picker, so nothing gets listed twice.
The checklist is what the patient is billed. Ticking an item puts it on the bill; unticking it takes it off; changing a price changes the charge. There is no second list to reconcile, and nothing is charged for work that wasn't recorded here. Reception, nurses and doctors can all maintain it — billing no longer waits on the doctor.
Everything billed on the visit, in one place
Under the checklist, the visit shows every charge raised against it, not just the one still open. Charges converge on the visit's reference number, so a bill settled at the cashier this morning, one voided and re-raised, and the ones the laboratory, imaging or the pharmacy counter raised during the same visit all appear together.
Each charge is listed with its status and its lines — quantity, unit price, any discount, line total — then its own total, what has been paid, and what is left. Above them sits the visit's own summary: billed, paid, balance. Each charge links through to View it, and to Pay it where there is something owing, so the front desk answers "what does this patient still owe for today?" without leaving the appointment.
A visit that has not started yet has no reference number to gather charges under. Until it does, the panel shows the patient's single open charge exactly as before.
A lab test is never paid for twice on one visit
A lab test can reach the bill from more than one direction on the same encounter — it might be ordered from Laboratory, ordered again from the booking form, and also included in a checklist service or package. Whichever combination happens, and in whatever order, the visit is charged for that test once. Every other line that would have billed it keeps its description and unit price, is marked with a muted "billed on another line for this visit", and totals ₱0.00 for that test, so the record still shows everything that was done without double-counting the money. Unticking the checklist line that was paying for it puts the charge back on the next eligible line automatically.
This only relaxes once money has actually been collected: a line that has already been paid, even partly, keeps its charge and is never quietly adjusted underneath a payment.
The day-before reminder
Most no-shows are not changes of mind. They are visits booked weeks ago and forgotten. A day before each appointment, every patient with an email address on file is sent a reminder — who they are seeing, when, where, and how to reach the clinic if they cannot make it — with the appointment attached as a calendar file. Patients on Gmail or Google Workspace find it already on their calendar; everyone else can open the attachment to add it.
Nothing has to be switched on and nobody has to remember to send it. The clinic sets it running once (bin/send-appointment-reminders.php, hourly — see the Operations guide) and it covers every clinic on the platform from then on.
What it deliberately does not do:
- Nobody is reminded twice. A reminder is recorded against the visit, so a repeated or overlapping run cannot send a second one.
- Nobody is missed because a run was. The job looks at everything happening in the next 24 hours that has not been reminded yet, not just visits sitting exactly on the 24-hour mark. A missed hour means a reminder arrives a little later, not never.
- Cancelled and completed visits are left alone, as are visits still marked "to be scheduled" — there is no time to remind anyone of yet, and the reminder is kept for when there is.
- Patients without an email address are skipped, not marked as reminded. Add an address today and tomorrow's visit still gets its reminder.
- Nothing clinical travels in it. The reminder and the calendar entry carry who, where and when. The reason for the visit stays in the record.
For clinics that already send calendar invitations on confirmation, the reminder updates that same calendar entry rather than adding a second one beside it. A clinic that has turned calendar invitations off still gets the reminder emails — without the attachment, since that switch is about what may appear on a calendar the clinic does not control.
Booking the next visit while closing this one
Most return visits are agreed in the last minute of a consultation — and then lost, because booking them is a separate errand after the patient has already walked out. Completing a visit now offers that booking in the same step.
Tick Schedule a follow-up appointment before clicking Complete and a short form opens: the doctor (the one who just saw the patient, unless you change it), the type, the date, the time, how long to allow, and the reason for coming back. The time list is the chosen doctor's real availability for that date, with taken slots struck out, exactly as on the booking form — so a follow-up can't be dropped on top of an existing appointment. Leave the time on To be scheduled to fix the day now and the hour later.
The follow-up has to fall on a date after today: today is the visit being closed, and a return visit belongs on a later day.
Left untouched, the tick box changes nothing — Complete closes the visit exactly as before. The option is only offered to staff who may book appointments; anyone else sees the plain Complete button.
Booked this way, the follow-up is an ordinary appointment: it appears on the doctor's schedule, notifies them, and can be confirmed, rescheduled or cancelled like any other. If the reason for the return is left blank, it is noted as a follow-up to the visit it came from, so the new booking is never a bare entry in the diary.
If the follow-up can't be taken — the slot was claimed while you were typing, say — the visit is still completed and says so, with the reason. Book the return visit from New Appointment when the conflict is sorted.
Sections on the appointment page
A visit that has not started yet has one thing to do: start it. So the page opens with Actions alone, and the other sections are not offered — there is nothing to record on a visit nobody has begun.
Once the visit is in progress — or has been completed — every section that applies to it becomes available from the Sections row at the top: the consultation record, the availed items, orders, the chart, the documents. They stay collapsed until you pick one, so the page is a short list of what this visit has rather than a scroll through everything it could have.
Which sections appear at all still follows the usual rules: a section belongs to a module you have switched on, and to work you are permitted to do. A dental practice leads with the odontogram.
Online appointments
Some visits are attended from wherever the patient is, not from the waiting room. Tick Online Appointment while booking and the visit is set up for that from the start.
Ticking the box asks for the patient's email address, and will not let the booking through without a valid one — the whole visit reaches the patient through a link, and a link needs somewhere to go. The address fills itself in from the patient you selected (or from the new patient you are registering on the spot), so most of the time there is nothing to type; correct it there and then if what is on file is out of date.
On booking, the patient is emailed their secure portal link with its QR code, and the address is saved to their record so the clinic and the patient agree on where things are sent. From then on the visit behaves like any other online booking: the patient can see their appointment, message the clinic, and upload a receipt, and staff see the visit flagged as Online in the appointment list.
The message conversation belongs to the patient. Completing or cancelling one visit does not erase the thread or prevent a reply while the patient's portal grant remains valid. Appointment forms and uploads still follow the visit's status rules.
If the email cannot be sent — a mailbox that bounces, a mail service having a bad afternoon — the appointment is still booked, and says so. Send the link again from the appointment page whenever you are ready; it re-sends the same link rather than issuing a second one, so an earlier email never stops working.
Annual Physical Exam (APE) intake
For clinics that run employer physicals, a visit can be opened as an Annual Physical Exam. Tick Annual Physical Exam while booking, or open APE Intake from the appointment at any time, to fill out a single, flowing form that mirrors the familiar two-page APE paper form — history, the medical checklist, COVID and OB-Gyn details, the head-to-toe physical exam, laboratory, and the doctor's diagnosis, remarks and recommendation.
The form fills in the gaps for you and guides the examiner:
- Existing details are shown to guide completion — the patient's name, birthdate, age and known vitals appear at the top so nothing is re-typed from memory.
- Height and weight cross-reference the previous record. The value last recorded for the patient is shown with a one-tap use, so a new measurement can match it or replace it. Height converts between inches and centimetres as you type, and BMI is worked out automatically.
- The dental line cross-references the latest dental notes on file, shown read-only for reference — copying them in never changes the original dental record.
- Laboratory results link to the lab module. For each test you can attach a result the patient already has on file or order a new one — one at a time or the whole standard panel at once — and ordered tests are recorded against the visit.
- Reception, nurses and doctors can all complete the form, each adding their part without disturbing anyone else's entries.
- Unremarkable findings read cleanly. On the printed report, Hearing, Vision and the dental remarks show "Normal" when nothing was noted, so a blank never looks like a missed step.
When it's done, the exam prints as a clean 2-page A4 PDF. The front desk can download it, and — for company physicals — the employer or HMO can download the same report from their own portal.
Why it helps
For the clinic
A clear, shared schedule means fewer double-bookings, fewer gaps, and a smoother flow of patients through the day.
For doctors
Doctors see their day laid out and know what to expect, with each patient's file ready before they arrive.
For staff
The front desk can find an open time, book it, and even add a first-time patient on the spot — without flipping pages, calling around, or jumping between screens. They can also record and adjust what the patient availed, and the bill follows automatically.
For patients
They are offered times that actually work, are less likely to be turned away, and spend less time waiting.
When a patient does not show up, the visit can be marked accordingly, helping the clinic understand and reduce no-shows over time.
On the patient's own calendar
An email is easy to miss. A calendar entry is not — it sits in the patient's own diary and their phone reminds them the day before and an hour ahead.
When an appointment is confirmed, the patient is sent a calendar invitation along with the usual email. Patients whose email is handled by Google — Gmail, or a work address on Google Workspace — get the visit added to their Google Calendar automatically. They do not have to accept anything, install anything, or connect their Google account to the clinic. If the visit is later moved, the entry moves with it; if it is cancelled, the entry disappears.
Patients on other email providers still receive the invitation as an attachment they can open to add the visit themselves, and every patient gets the ordinary appointment email regardless.
Doctors can get the same thing. A clinic can also send each doctor a calendar entry for the appointments they are booked for, so their day appears in their own diary alongside everything else. The doctor's entry names the patient they are due to see and the type of visit — and nothing else from the record.
Both are controlled under Settings → Calendar Invitations. Patient invitations are on by default. Doctor invitations are off until the clinic turns them on, because a doctor's entry sends a patient's name to whichever provider handles that doctor's email — worth a moment's thought where doctors use personal rather than clinic-issued mailboxes.
Nothing clinical travels in an invitation — no complaint, no diagnosis, no
notes. Just the time, the clinic's contact details, and the name of the doctor
or the patient.
Re-opening a completed visit
Completing a visit fixes the appointment record. The patient can no longer add appointment-bound forms, results, receipts, or records through the portal. The patient conversation remains available while the portal grant is valid.
When something has to be added or corrected afterwards, a receptionist, doctor or administrator can Re-open Visit from the appointment page. The visit returns to in-progress and appointment-bound records become editable again. The patient can keep using the existing portal grant until its stated expiry.
Re-opening undoes a sign-off, so it is recorded in the audit trail with who did it and when.